After the Mahabalipuram beach resort, we boarded the midnight train to Tiruchirappali, better known as Trichy, for a five hour train ride. We had a reserved section in the sleeper area, and other than the usual "through the floor of the train" bathroom and the mattresses covered in naughahyde, most folk fared pretty well.
After an hour long van ride and breakfast, we arrived at Shantivanam, which translates as "Forest of Peace", on the
banks of the sacred K(C)auvery River, the next morning. Shantivanam is a Catholic/Hindu "fusion" ashram created in the 1949 - 1950 period by two French Benedictine monks, the better known of which was Henri le Saux, later to become Swami Abhishiktananda. As the Universe would have it, the hut i stayed in for most of my 2 1/2 weeks was Swami Abhishiktananda's, still complete with the garlands from the recent 100th birth anniversary gathering held there.
The ashram is a beautiful place, and as some have described, what one would expect in a movie about Indian forest ashrams. The main dining hall and office were where we would gather to eat three times a day. Meals were all vegetarian, rice-based, and tasty with a wide variation of sauces, vegetables,
masala chai (spiced tea with milk), chapati (Indian flat bread) and occasionally iddlies (south Indian rice patties). They were eaten on the floor from steel dishes and cups with or without utensils; some folk ate in the traditional Indian fashion with their hands.Our main meetings were in the "meditation hall", a large structure with a black sculpture of Jesus sitting in the lotus facing in all four directions, a traditional Indian d
epiction of some of their deities. The interior was a cement floor with bench
seating along the inside wall, which most folk used. A few sat on the floor on cushions as did Russill Paul, the tour leader, who delivered daily talks and sessions which often incorporated chanting, Sufi twirling, guitar playing, sitting in stillness, and guided meditations.Most of the
folk stayed in newer individual rooms in long rows with running water and western style toilets with seats (or alternatively with squat toilets) which were flushed with a bucket. Most had overhead fans, lockable doors, barred windows, and platform beds with a mattress on them surrounded by a mosquito net, as well as a desk and a table.Others stayed in individual huts (myself included) which had
very different accommodations depending on when they were built. Abhishiktananda's hut, one of the originals, had no water, toilet or shower, but they were nearby. Most huts and rooms had some way to shower, either with pouring a bucket over oneself, or with a rough shower fixture.None of the water was drinkable; all drinking water was purchased in sealed bottles from the local Coca-Cola subsidiary with their Indian brand name. The water was about western low-end prices, $.80/bottle, which is expensive by south Indian standards. Each of us drank about 2 bottles/day, more or less. To the best of my knowledge, no one got any meaningful traveler's diarrhea/dysentery. The old adages, "if it isn't peeled, cooked, or boiled, don't eat it" and "if you can't break the seal on the water yourself, don't drink it" worked.
The only other complaints were the mosquitoes, which were a big problem, or a small one, highly dependent on where you were in the ashram and what time of day it was. If you were in the interior of the ashram, away from th
e breezes coming off the river, and it was the hour around dawn or dusk, mosquitoes were a big problem. If you faced the river on an outside hut (mine did) where the breezes were and it was any other time, there were very few mosquitoes. The overhead fans were very useful in the rooms as if they were cranked up to high speed, the mosquitoes couldn't navigate to get to you.Bedbugs were also a problem, but only if you had a "bare" mattress, i.e. one that was not covered in plastic/naugahyde. One place i did, and i got bitten; as soon as i got a covered mattress, i was OK. i had taken a shower curtain as a bed cover the previous trip for just this reason and had no problem. Some folk got bitten pretty badly and were uncomfortable.
Shantivanam was our home from which we ventured about every other day for a temple trip or village outing.
